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Make Feminism A FactBuilding A New Independent Media Model

September is a really special time for us here at Bitch because it’s budgeting season. Sound boring? Please please please! Wait a minute. Because budgets? They’re about putting our money where our mouth is. Budgets? They’re about values. And we’re really fucking proud of ours.

The fact is, at a time when massive mainstream outlets are making substantial cuts to staff and longform writing in order to “pivot to video” (R.I.P. MTV, Mashable, the New York Times copy editors, Mic, Vice…should we keep going?), we’re mapping the future based on what’ll make the most impact for our community instead of what’ll produce the most views for advertisers. There are a million differences between Bitch and everywhere else, but maybe the biggest right now is that Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm doesn’t get to pull up a chair at our editorial meetings. (See ya never, Zuck!)

We decide, instead, to publish the real work that moves feminism forward. And want to know something? It’s working.

After we published our takedown of corporate-owned Bustle, we started seeing more outlets call out fake “empowertising.” And remember when corporate media declared that millennials don’t like longform articles? Our Fragility series, which explores topics like the fragility of the western traveler or the fragility of gaming culture in depth every month, has grown exponentially in readership with every single installment. That’s just a fact.

When we listen to our community and what you think is important, we make a real impact. When we’re brave and take the risks that no one else is willing to take—regardless of whether or not the dollars add up—our community becomes stronger.

Bitch has created a blueprint for what independent feminist media can accomplish. All these membership drives from media outlets that have been springing up in the last six months? That’s what our B-Hive has been doing for decades, without the paywalls (we see you, Washington Post). But now, we’re counting on you to let us know just how risky we can get.

As we lay out Bitch’s next budget, we need to know if we’re on the right track. So if you want to see more ambitious articles, deeper investment in longform series that wouldn’t run anywhere else, more podcasts that aren’t afraid to rail against the system, or a magazine that perhaps the post office wants to censor again (it’s already happened once), we need to know our community backs our values and our work

There are three ways you can support Bitch.

Join the B-Hive! Making a monthly gift, whether it’s $5 or $50, is by far the most important, impactful thing you can do for Bitch Media. Membership includes a subscription to Bitch magazine, mugs, notebooks, and more.

As a thanks for having our back, and in the spirit of “hey corporate media you messed up again so here let us fix it for you,” we’ve created a special pencil set so you too can help scribble, erase, and write feminism into fact every day.